Should Isaiah Thomas be an All-Star?

The Celtics have a realistic shot at landing the fifth seed by the 2016 playoffs. Of all the Eastern Conference teams, the only ones unequivocally better than the C’s are the Bulls, Heat, Cavaliers and Hawks. Out of them, Chicago and Atlanta are legitimately one injured starter away from being weaker than the Boston Celtics.

Last year, five of the eight top seeds in the Eastern Conference had an All-Star on their roster. The Celtics, Bucks and Nets were the three out of eight teams, that did not have an All-Star. The Bucks will likely have at least one All-Star on their roster next year, between the severely underrated, Khris Middleton, new-Buck Greg Monroe, and future-superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Nets will meanwhile regress, while the Celtics – as mentioned – could sneak into the top four. However, nobody on the Celtics seem like they’re All-Star caliber. Thus, it’d be quite the feat if the C’s could somehow manage to pull off such a high seeding without an All-Star.

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It’d be seen as a testament to the Celtics’ “team-first” mentality, illustrating their ability to compete without a star. Yet, the Atlanta Hawks’ identity is very much in the same vain as the Celtics, yet they were rewarded with four All-Star selections last season.

So how plausible is it for Boston to be represented at next year’s All-Star game in Toronto?

Most Celtics fans contend that Isaiah Thomas is the C’s best player, however, he comes off the bench, which for a number one-option, is unusual. The fact of the matter is that the Celtics are simply a better team with Thomas coming off the bench, since his defensive limitations prevent him from being effective in the opening minutes. It’s far more disruptive for other teams, when Stevens deploys Thomas midway into the first quarter, as it prevents early runs from occurring as a result of Thomas’ lackluster defense.

However, when opposing teams game-plan against the Celtics, Thomas’ name’s inevitably mentioned the most. His propensity to split defenders on double-teams requires teams to find alternate ways to stop the tenacious IT.

So why can’t a sixth man make an All-Star team? Manu Ginobili made an All NBA Third Team as a sixth man. Although making an All NBA team isn’t the same as making an All-Star team, it’s actually a more exclusive team to make, considering 26 players make the All-Star team, while only 15 players make an All NBA team.

If the Celtics manage to over-perform, and somehow manage to pull off 30+ wins by the All-Star break, one Celtic will make the All-Star team. Impartial fans will consult a stat sheet and see Thomas’ stats first, who’ll presumably be the team’s number one scorer.

Last season, Thomas averaged 19.o PPG, 2.1 RPG and 5.4 APG with the Celtics. He averaged those numbers playing just a mere 26 MPG (minutes per game, that is)! If you were to adjust those numbers to 36 minutes per game, which is the amount of minutes starters typically play, he’d have averaged, 26.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG and 7.5 APG. Now those are All-Star caliber numbers.

While Thomas’ efficiency would have likely dropped if he had been playing 36 minutes per game (fatigue, more time for defense to adjust, ect…) his PER of 22.3 (bear in mind the average is 15), is far and away above average. That’s also higher than all of the Eastern Conference’s four All-Stars last season (John Wall, Kyle Lowry, Jeff Teague and Kyrie Irving).

In addition to last year’s EC All-Star guards, Thomas would be competing with the likes of Goran Dragic, Kemba Walker, Brandon Jennings and Reggie Jackson. While none of those four have ever made an All-Star team, each of them had solid seasons last year, and are expected to build on them this year. Also, don’t sleep on Derrick Rose, who could easily have a comeback year next season. Sadly, I feel like I keep saying this every year, though.

I believe that Celtics fans will be vocal in their support for Thomas come All-Star voting. If Thomas can continue to do what he was doing last season, I believe he’ll at least enter the top ten in votes for Eastern Conference guards.

Just drop 50 points a game like you did here, IT4!

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